3 Arrested for Attempting to Block Blood Transfusion
PATCHOGUE, N.Y. — Police arrested three of 15 Jehovah’s Witnesses who surrounded the hospital bed of a church member to keep doctors from giving blood transfusions to the woman for complications after childbirth, officials said.
Denise Nicoleau and her husband, Herriot, refused the transfusions on religious grounds Friday, and a Brookhaven Memorial Hospital official obtained a court order to administer them.
The three arrested, including Herriot Nicoleau, were charged with second-degree criminal trespass. Then the woman received the first transfusion, police said.
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